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18 Pol tics Proposed l tics Proposed mondi mondi A y his Rarieda counterpar Proposed mondi A y his Rarieda counterpar Constitution Constitution to allo sessions without permission but kiya O unacceptable Omondi Anyanga. PHOTO: FILE by Owino Samwel @owino_samwel Q : Do you support the proposal by Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo to amend the Constitution so that MPs can be absent from the House without necessarily seeking written permission from the Speaker? A: His is an amendment that will change the attitude of Kenyans and ensure that MPs are treated well and with respect unlike now when they are treated like school-going children. We need to be treated honourably as people who were elected. Any law restricting us is degrading and one that was not done in good faith. MPs are like any other public officers who are performing their duties. We are not extra-ordinary; we are just ordinary people like other Kenyans. The people who did all this, some of them are not even MPs now. The reason why MPs some- times skip sittings is because they have other issues to attend to, including attending parliamentary committee meetings . This is the reason why we are saying those who passed this law were malicious. absenteeism amendment and MPs’ Okiya Omtatah. PHOTO: FILE Q: Can this be done without going to a referendum given that it touches on the chapter on representation? A: Yes, we can. There are other methods that can be adopted. MPs can amend the Constitution in a piecemeal rather than amending the entire document. Q: Having already made it difficult for one to exercise the right of recall by requiring that one should, among others, seek a ruling of the High Court first, how will the electorate ensure they are getting proper representation? A: I think the provisions of the recall clause are OK as they are. What is required is to ensure that it should not be left to abuse by a few individuals who when they lose elections will sponsor people to have an MP recalled. I also think that it is high time elected members play their roles. Q: There are complaints that some MPs only attend or make appearances in the House but do not make any contributions thus defeating the logic of proper representation. Are these complaints justified? A: No, of course they are not justified at all. How do they weigh the performance of those who contribute in the House? MPs contribute in different ways and not neces- sarily by making noise in the House. Some of them do this by contributing in committees where they are able to give suggestions and recommendations. In short, this allegation is baseless. Q: Some MPs argue that in the current dispensation, much of the work is done in committees and not on the floor of the House and hence claims of non-representation are not justified. Is this the case? A: This is not true because committees are not the only ones that can provide representation. The electorate want to feel that they are represented and also see the results. Also, there is no way that only the chairperson can interrogate issues. We need to all be there. Aside from this, we also need to have Cabinet secretaries in the House to explain to Members what exactly is happening. Therefore, I want to say that apart from committees, MPs do a lot of work outside. Q: The Senate is now demanding that it must have a say in the processing of all Bills. Is that right? A: The law is very clear. Bills that do not touch on counties are not supposed to go to the Senate. The National Assembly should be given a chance to perform its work just like we have given the Senate space to also perform its duties. Recall of Members of Parliament is not a judicial process. Q : Do you support the proposal by Rarieda MP Nichols Gumbo to amend the Constitution so that MPs can be absent from the house without necessarily seeking written permission from the Speaker? A: No! Members of Parliament are employees of the people and there must be a mechanism on how they are supervised.Where do they want to go yet they are employed to be in Parliament? Chronic absenteeism without permission is wrong and unacceptable. The Speaker should take control and ensure that all MPs are present in the House otherwise if we tolerate absenteeism without permission then we risk a situation where debates would stall because of lack of quorum. Q: Can the amendment be done without going to a referendum given that it touches on the chapter of representation? A: Yes, this can be done without necessarily going to a referendum because it does not touch on the role and functions of Parliament but it largely deals with the discipline of the legislators which should be handled squarely by the Speaker. Parliament in this case needs a two-thirds majority and everything is changed. We don’t need a referendum in this case. Article 251(1) provides for the roles and functions of Parliament and those are issues that can be subjected to a referendum. Q: Having already made it difficult for one to exercise the right of recall by requiring, among others, that one should seek a ruling of the High Court first, how will the electorate ensure they are getting proper representation? A: Recall of Members of Parliament is not a judicial process. This is purely a political process which should only be handled by the electorate and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC). Judiciary has no role in this and this needs to be reviewed. It is like going for a referendum. The Opposition Cord did not go to court before launching their Okoa Kenya Movement. One only needs to collect the requisite signatures to push for the referendum agenda. Q: There are complaints that some MPs only attend or make appearances in the house but do not make any contributions thus defeating the logic of proper representation.Are these complaints justified? A: The complaints in this case have no basis at all. Members of Parliament perform many functions and they don’t have to speak in Parliament to be seen to be working. Some members may not speak but they do lobby their colleagues to vote in a particular way during debate on important Bills in the House which in the end leads to good laws. Q: Some MPs argue that in the current dispensation much of the work is done in committees and not on the floor of the House hence claims of non-representation are not justified. Is this the case? A: No that is not the case because there is no committee report that can be adopted in the House without being subjected to debate by all members, including those not in the respective committees. We should also remember that the work of the committee is not complete until all MPs look at its report. Q: The Senate is now demanding that it must have a say in the processing of all Bills. Is that right? A: Yes. According to in- ternational practice, the Senate is ideally the Upper House and, therefore, good practice dictates that they should have a say in all the Bills before the President assents to them. However, the problem currently is that our Constitution does not allow them to do that. So, the argument is constitutionally not correct but politically speaking, they have a case. Saturday, August 16, 2014 / PEOPLE DAILY